NRG-5: Aerial Predictive Maintenance for utility infrastructures

Critical infrastructures are required to run reliably around the clock. Any service interruption means high costs for utilities companies and potentially damaging disruptions for consumers. 

NRG-5 is investigating the use of 5G features in several use cases in the shift towards a truly decentralised, secure and trusted plug ‘n’ play for the energy sector. The overarching goal is to achieve network auto-configuration automatically, including self-organisation and unified AAA (authentication, authorisation and accounting) to tackle multi-tenancy in geographically unbound mobility scenarios. Chief among the priorities of NRG-5 is ensuring secure communications irrespective of the network service provided and the physical entity initiating the connection.

The NRG-5 use case on aerial predictive maintenance utility infrastructure leverages the capability of drones and views/cameras. The drones need to run complex, bandwidth demanding, computationally heavy and time critical applications, meeting: 

• Operational requirements to define the flight plan for each drone so that it has  optimal coverage with minimal resources, taking into account its flight capability and the remaining energy.

• Communication requirements, either by cellular or satellite links controlling the drones flight and uploading captured video.

• Mission requirements, such as object (i.e. lines, pipes, tanks, blades, towers) video analysis and inspection.

To achieve all this, NRG-5 is implementing an energy infrastructure Predictive Maintenance as a Service (PMaaS) application by integrating application specific logic with a complex forwarding graph of VNFs, such as:

• A virtual Media Processing & Analysis (vMPA) VNF able to perform real time video streams processing and analysis. While designed for energy infrastructures-related video processing, this VNF is generic enough to be used for video processing and analysis.
• A virtual Drones Flight Control (vDFC) VNF able to perform real time autonomous control of drones. This VNF will also be quite generic, as it could be used for applications such as precision agriculture, security monitoring of critical infrastructures and crown management.
   

ITU 5G functionalities

NRG-5 investigates: 

• xMBB communications via a Media Processing & Analysis (vMPA) VNF for video streaming from the drones and analysis to the xMEC and the utilities control center.

• uMTC communications via the Drones Flight Control (vDFC) VNF for controlling the flight of drones.

Locations: Stublach, UK

Date: Q4-2018

Vertical partners involved: Engie Ineo 

Also involved: Visiona Ingeniería de Proyectos SL, Hispasat - Satellite Communications SA

Other Partners: Engineering - Ingegneria Informatica SpA (Coordinator), BT, E.ON Energy Research Centre at RWTH Aachen University, Jozef Stefan Institute, Keysight Technologies, Málaga University, Optimum, Power Ops Ltd, Romanian Energy Centre(CRE), Singular Logic, Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Sterea Ellada (TEISTE), Thales,  UPMC Sorbonne University, Wind Tre SpA, ASM Terni SpA, e-motion Srl, RomGaz SA, WINLAB (Wireless Information Network Laboratory) of Rutgers University

NRG-5 Website | @5GPPP_NRG5